Only Human
by MiroTheCat
Summary: Jack may not be able to die, but he can feel pain. When he falls into a painful situation while helping the Doctor with a problem alien, his friends repay the good care that he takes of them. Sometimes it feels good to let somebody else be the strong one for a little while. Jack!whump


Jack took good care of his crew. He was good at being in charge and protecting everyone. And he had that inability to die thing going for him. He could be the strong one.

Knowing that he couldn't die wasn't all that much consolation after falling into a pool of something with an extreme pH, wrestling an alien. Fast healing wasn't the same as not feeling pain, and knowing that he wasn't going to die was not the same as his _body_ not thinking he was going to die. The alien had dragged him under rather abruptly for a rather extended period of time, and he'd swallowed and aspirated the stuff. He couldn't breathe and his insides burned as well as his skin. He was running on pure adrenaline as he grappled below the surface with the dratted creature.

Finally, the alien lost its grip and Jack surfaced. A metal pipe promptly poked him, his crew plus the Doctor on the other end of it. How he loved them all. He latched on to it, crawling up it as they reeled him in. Oh god, the pain. He'd be fine, he knew that, but he had to get out of that stuff before he had any chance of the pain subsiding.

The girls ran to him as he collapsed onto dry ground, coughing up the burning liquid. Owen grabbed them both and held them back. "Don't touch him. That's an incredibly alkaline solution."

The Doctor pulled a hose out of who-knows-where and started spraying him down. It hurt. Anything touching his chemical-burned skin hurt. But it didn't hurt as much as his stomach did. Extremely basic solution, stomach acid, violent neutralization... Jack curled up in pain, panting, every breath making his burnt lungs scream. He was going to be fine. He was not capable of dying. This would pass. He just had to remember that.

"Blanket-_soft_ mind you- and a sealable bag." Owen snapped, giving Gwen and Tosh a push in the direction of the van.

"Bucket." The Doctor added. "Looks like he's going to hurl."

Yes, yes he was. The faster he got that stuff out of his stomach the sooner the pain would be over. Jack grabbed gratefully at the bucket that Ianto provided, not bothering to protest as Owen and the Doctor, now equipped with rubber gloves, began peeling his soaked clothes off.

Okay, it was kind of nice to let someone else take charge. Just for a few minutes. He appreciated the ability to focus on retching into his bucket while they took care of hosing him down a second time and wrapping a big fluffy blanket around him and guiding him to a nice dry area uphill of the pool. The fabric against his skin hurt, and breathing hurt, and his stomach and throat screamed at him, but less by the second. He was healing just as he knew he would.

The Doctor sat down next to him and put an arm around him, and he allowed himself to rest his head on his old friend's shoulder. The alien was gone and the adrenaline was wearing off.

Owen was going on about how they needed to treat the burns. He didn't know about the inability to die and super-fast healing thing yet. Jack decided that the Doctor could explain. He spent so much time taking care of his crew, it was his turn to let someone take care of him. Just for a few minutes of course.

* * *

"So our boss is immortal." Tosh commented disbelievingly.

"Yeah, I've known since I started here." Gwen backed the Doctor up. She giggled behind her hand. "And he also appears to have nodded off on his friend's shoulder."

Owen shook his head, eyes fixed as much on the unmarred skin that had been covered in chemical burns only minutes before as on his position. "Now that's a sight."

Ianto eyed the deceptively calm pool that was currently digesting an alien. "After a dip in that thing, I think we can allow him this moment of humanity."

* * *

_Hi! Some of you will have found this because you enjoyed my other fics and followed me, but I'm guessing most will have stumbled across this by chance since this is a fandom I haven't done before. Welcome. *bows*_

_I tried to write an explanatory paragraph for what was going through my head, but it failed. But I had reasoning! I promise._


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